Mar. 25—Atrisco Heritage Academy on Tuesday hired its new football coach.
Dominic Casaus, 41, who spent last season as the Jaguars' offensive coordinator, is being promoted.
Casaus is also Atrisco's girls varsity wrestling coach.
"I've been coaching for a while, and been pretty successful," he said. "Football has always been my passion. That was always my favorite sport growing up."
Casaus was the head JV coach at Atrisco Heritage before moving up to become the OC last fall. The Jaguars struggled to a 2-8 mark under previous coach Howard Knezevich, who recently stepped down.
"I think we'll have a lot better year this year, for sure," Casaus said.
Atrisco Heritage last qualified for the Class 6A playoffs in 2022.
And Casaus said he feels he has the right blue print to get the Jaguars back to competing for playoff berths.
"It's my strong suit, being able to run a program, put the right bodies in the right place," he said.
Although he already was a head coach, taking on the football program is a challenge he welcomes and embraces.
"It's (a) my time to shine type of thing, go out there and show them what Atrisco football is like," he said.
Casaus played locally at Valley, where he graduated in 2001. He had started coaching at Atrisco during the COVID-19 season, which was 2020.
"It's just gonna take us getting back to fundamentally sound, disciplined football," he said. "We've lost that a little bit."
But Casaus said Atrisco Heritage does have a group of solid athletes coming back for next fall, coming off a season in which the Jaguars, he said, were hit hard by injuries.
"My goal is to try and hire the right staff and keep a staff together," Casaus said, "and to get the kids to buy into the program. ... We have all the pieces athletically."
